Why didn’t Facebook, Yahoo warn public about NSA? Because they faced prison time if they did

The National Security Agency worked with both Facebook and Yahoo in the Internet surveillance of American civilians. Both Facebook and Yahoo users rely on confidentiality provided by these servers. The question arises . why didn’t both Facebook and Yahoo let the general public know about the activities of the NSA before hand? According to Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer, the answer is simple: “Releasing classified information is treason and you are incarcerated,” she said.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) – Both Mayer and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg spoke out against critics who have charged tech companies with not doing enough to fight off NSA surveillance. Mayer said her executives faced jail time if they revealed government secrets.

More tech firms are now pushing to be able to publish the number of requests they receive from the spy agency. Companies are currently forbidden by law to disclose how much data they provide.

Mayer was asked why tech companies had not simply decided to tell the public more about what the US surveillance industry was doing during an interview at the Techcrunch Disrupt conference in San Francisco.

Mayer said she that she was “proud to be part of an organization that from the beginning, in 2007, has been skeptical of – and has been scrutinizing – those requests [from the NSA].”